Gaeb still waiting for verdict

ALMOST seven months after the High Court heard an application by a senior manager to dismiss an appeal by TransNamib against his reinstatement, he is still awaiting the court verdict.

The District Labour Court instructed TransNamib on May 16 2005 to pay former senior manager Bernhardt !Gaeb N$468 200 but the company filed an urgent application three days later to stay the order until their appeal against the order was heard. When there were delays in the appeal hearing, !Gaeb’s lawyer Jeff Tjitemisa went back to the High Court to ask that TransNamib’s appeal be dismissed since it was only a delaying tactic.Judge Anel Silungwe reserved his judgement in July last year and !Gaeb was still awaiting the outcome by yesterday.Tjitemisa said the judges had too much to do because of a lack of staff and his client was awaiting the outcome patiently even though it has taken some time.Apart from the N$468 200, TransNamib was ordered to keep !Gaeb on the company’s medical aid scheme for the next four years and to pay him full pension benefits.!Gaeb resigned in January 2005 following an alleged witch-hunt against former managers assigned to a project to turn around TransNamib’s financial position.They were not reinstated in their former positions after the project was completed.The other former TransNamib managers are Moses Mbai, Gothard !Howaeb and Erenfried ‘Tjivi’ Ndjoonduezu.They were all found guilty of misconduct by a disciplinary hearing and subsequently took the company to court.In May 2006, Magistrate Uaatjo Uanivi, Chairperson of the District Labour Court, also ordered TransNamib to reinstate Ndjoonduezu and to backdate his salary to December 2004.In addition, the company was asked to refund his study fees and pay him three months’ salary for damages incurred during the suspension and money deducted illegally from his salary.Uanivi said in his ruling that TransNamib Chief Executive Officer John Shaetonhodi acted “grossly unfairly” and outside his authority to trump up charges against Ndjoonduezu and dismiss him just because he refused to distance himself from newspaper articles that alleged a witch-hunt against the senior managers at the parastatal.In Mbai’s case the company offered to reinstate him and the case was settled out of court.When there were delays in the appeal hearing, !Gaeb’s lawyer Jeff Tjitemisa went back to the High Court to ask that TransNamib’s appeal be dismissed since it was only a delaying tactic.Judge Anel Silungwe reserved his judgement in July last year and !Gaeb was still awaiting the outcome by yesterday.Tjitemisa said the judges had too much to do because of a lack of staff and his client was awaiting the outcome patiently even though it has taken some time.Apart from the N$468 200, TransNamib was ordered to keep !Gaeb on the company’s medical aid scheme for the next four years and to pay him full pension benefits.!Gaeb resigned in January 2005 following an alleged witch-hunt against former managers assigned to a project to turn around TransNamib’s financial position.They were not reinstated in their former positions after the project was completed.The other former TransNamib managers are Moses Mbai, Gothard !Howaeb and Erenfried ‘Tjivi’ Ndjoonduezu.They were all found guilty of misconduct by a disciplinary hearing and subsequently took the company to court.In May 2006, Magistrate Uaatjo Uanivi, Chairperson of the District Labour Court, also ordered TransNamib to reinstate Ndjoonduezu and to backdate his salary to December 2004.In addition, the company was asked to refund his study fees and pay him three months’ salary for damages incurred during the suspension and money deducted illegally from his salary.Uanivi said in his ruling that TransNamib Chief Executive Officer John Shaetonhodi acted “grossly unfairly” and outside his authority to trump up charges against Ndjoonduezu and dismiss him just because he refused to distance himself from newspaper articles that alleged a witch-hunt against the senior managers at the parastatal.In Mbai’s case the company offered to reinstate him and the case was settled out of court.

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